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Friday, July 22, 2011
MOVIE REVIEW
Rapt
Lights, Camera, Kidnapping
Yvan Attal (left) as Stanislas Graff and Anne Consigny as Françoise Graff in
Lucas Belvaux's 2009 film "Rapt".
Kino Lorber
Inc.
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Friday,
July 22, 2011
First released in 2009, Lucas
Belvaux's thriller "Rapt" finally arrives in earnest in select U.S. cities today
(after its earlier one-week July run at New York's Film Forum.)
Yvan Attal ("Munich", "Leaving") stars as Stanislas, a rich industrialist and
director of a company, kidnapped on the streets of France. We know little
about Stanislas except that he's a married family man and has a mistress.
The kidnappers know Stanislas and his finances well: they want 50 million francs
and they want it yesterday. The board members of Stanislas's company
negotiate with the kidnappers, who threaten to kill him.
Inspired by the real-life kidnapping of France's Édouard-Jean Empain a CEO held
for 60 days in 1978, "Rapt" is a standard slow-burn thriller, methodical and
orderly, featuring good performances from Mr. Attal, Anne Consigny (sterling
here as Françoise, Stanislas's wife) and Gérard Meylan (also great as Marcel,
Stanislas's attorney) as well as other cast members. "Rapt" works best as
a Hitchcockian drama of dual horrors: the trauma of first losing freedom then
being alienated from it and those around you when freedom is regained.
The camera initially reveals Stanislas in quick edits. We don't really get
to settle on him until about 30 minutes in, and of course, that's deliberate,
making his positioning in the film more intriguing.
"Rapt" has flourishes of nasty and generates comedy as a tongue-in-cheek satire
of tabloid journalism culture and how the media shapes one's reputation more
than reality does. Perception, as we're often told, is reality.
Truth is as much a commodity to be bought or sold in "Rapt" as Stanislas is.
Truth as truth just isn't sexy, nor does it always sell. ("It's not the
f-----g point whether you told the truth or not!", Al Pacino tells Russell Crowe
in "The Insider.") Incidentally, Mr. Empain's real-life troubles occurred
a year after the affairs of Joyce McKinney and Kirk Anderson, chronicled in the
recent Errol
Morris "Rashomon"-style documentary
"Tabloid".
Mr. Belvaux, who also wrote "Rapt", skillfully but crudely objectifies Stanislas,
shaping him through the eyes of others in a physical and psychological way.
Stanislas is a trophy to his captors both literally and figuratively. He's
also dollar signs to his company's board of directors. The film's dialogue
is precise and economical. "Rapt" has the functional villains and clichés
expected in thrillers, but these archetypes aren't the heart of the director's
film.
As beautiful and visceral as "Rapt" is, it uses Stanislas as a projection upon
which others can release pent-up resentments. No one seems to care about
him beyond their own self-interests. His wife is understandably indignant
about him. His kids are bitter. His colleagues may not be too happy,
either. Since we don't know Stanislas it may be easy for us to accept what
we are told about him. Stanislas is both a weak figure and the film's
strongest character for us to indict; he's strangely unsympathetic, which makes
the film's point: the kidnapping isn't a meant as the audience's rallying cry
for its investment -- the kidnapping is the least of the film's, the audience's
(and even Stanislas's) concern.
The plotting, planning and negotiating over Stanislas and his fate are the most
interesting parts of "Rapt". You ask yourself: who is holding Stanislas
hostage? Who holds and authorizes the ransom notes to his freedom?
Do we ever find out? "Rapt" is a fascinating confluence of politics,
family, money and identity. I was entertained and enthralled by much, if
not all, of this French drama.
Susanne Bier
(Oscar winner for
"In A Better World") is reportedly set to
direct a Hollywood remake of "Rapt", which was nominated for four Cesar Awards
in 2010. If true -- if she, or anyone else, is remaking the film -- I hope
the results are as sharp and as smart as "Rapt". Mr. Belvaux film isn't a
masterpiece but it is sly, thought-provoking and decorous theater.
With: André Marcon, Alex Descas, Michel Voïta, Françoise Fabian, Maxime
Lefrançois, Sarah Messens, Julie Kaye, Christophe Kourotchkine, Marc Rioufol,
Tania Torrens, Patrick Descamps, Bertrand Constant.
"Rapt" is not rated by the Motion Picture Association Of
America. It contains a scene of grisly, graphic violence, sensuality and
harsh language. The film is in the French language with English subtitles. The film's running time is
two hours and one minute.
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